The Japanese have a word for the sense of regret they feel when something valuable is wasted: 'mottainai' (もったいない). It can be translated as “don’t waste anything worthy” or “what a waste”, and has come to represent the island nation’s environmental awareness.

But it’s also connected to Japan’s indigenous religion, Shintoism, in which nature and even man-made objects are imbued with their own ‘kami’ or spirit – meaning things have innate value and are not to be disrespectfully discarded.

And there are apps that feature “dictionaries” to help people sort their waste, as well as alarms to remind people what to put out for collection on a given day.

Japan incentivizes plastic recycling

Image: Ministry of the Environment

There are good reasons behind Japan's motivation to tackle its waste.

In the bubble economy of the 1980s and early 1990s, production of plastics grew quickly, and so, too, did the country’s waste problem. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of plastic bottles produced tripled to more than 360,000 tonnes, according to Japan's environment ministry.

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Today, Japan is second only to the US as the world’s biggest generator of plastic packaging waste per capita, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. But in a report, last year, UNEP noted,“thanks to a very effective waste management system and a high degree of social consciousness, [Japan] accounts for relatively limited leakages of single-use plastics in the environment”.

Japan’s landmass is limited, so there’s little space for landfill sites, meaning garbage that can’t be recycled is often burned.

There are strict rules around what can be recycled and when in Japan.

Image: Nakano City Waste Management Office

While collections vary between prefectures, in Nakano City items including food waste, unclean pizza boxes, diapers and waterproof rubber boots are collected for incineration, which generates electricity.

However, burning waste produces harmful gases, including dioxins, which were reported to be contaminating soil and even breast milk. So over the past two decades, the country has been working on improving technology to reduce emissions from incineration in order to protect people and the environment.

Between 1997 and 2003, dioxin emissions fell by 98%, according to the government.

Plastic

What is the World Economic Forum doing about ending plastic pollution?

More than 90% of plastic is never recycled, and a whopping 8 million metric tons of plastic waste are dumped into the oceans annually. At this rate, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050.

The World Economic Forum has played a crucial role in connecting TerraCycle, a global waste management and recycling company, with logistics giant UPS and some of the world’s leading retailers and consumer goods companies (including Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Carrefour, Tesco, Mondelēz, PepsiCo, Danone, Mars, Nestlé and Unilever) to develop and pilot a revolutionary zero-waste e-commerce system called Loop.

Loop promotes responsible consumption and eliminates waste by introducing a new way for consumers to purchase, enjoy and recycle their favorite products. Instead of relying on single-use packaging, it delivers products to consumers’ doorsteps in durable packaging that is collected, cleaned, refilled and reused, sometimes more than 100 times.

The Loop Model.

The Forum is helping the Loop Alliance bring the Loop model to cities around the world. Read more in our Impact Story.

In the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, when all eyes will be on Japan, its drive to boost its green credentials continues apace.

There are now 26 “environmentally harmonious” certified eco-towns, according to the environment ministry. And one village has taken mottainai to another level by aiming to become 100% zero-waste by 2020.

“Products need to be designed for the circular economy, where everything is reused or recycled. These actions really need to be taken to businesses and incorporate producers, who need to consider how to deal with the product once its useful life has ended.

“It’s important, no matter the obstacles, to keep striving to achieve the 100% goal. It’s important that world leaders now take their turn to make circular economy happen,” Sakano said.